Inside Theo Epstein’s office, there’s a window separating the baseball operations world and the rest of the Cubs’ business side.

“Sprawling formulas and equations fill the glass,” writes Wright Thompson (ESPN), “straight-up vector-calculus-looking madness, which is exactly what everyone expects to see in Theo Epstein’s office.”

Except it’s all a joke.

Aware of his public perception as a cold, stats-driven front office wunderkind, Epstein has decided to lean into the image, because it’s funny – not because it describes him.

Of course, I don’t mean that Epstein is simply a closeted “old-schooler,” stuck in a modern world. Instead, I mean the seemingly intelligent, well put-together, friendly face of the Chicago Cubs has, like many of us, a far more complex, sometimes darker, personality. Perhaps more so than you think.

In Thompson’s piece we learn that Epstein is something of a loner, an observer; he has a mind attracted to the macabre, an unhealthy attention to detail; he can be hilariously funny, he can be all too honestly mean; he can keep his excitement at bay, but explode in frustration (with a golf club … and a golf ball … and Boston’s VP of Player Personnel Ben Cherington’s head), and yet still were left with just a few pixels of a much bigger, much more complicated picture than what we’ve come to accept.

Everyone’s psyche is multi-dimensional, don’t get me wrong, but very few people, I suspect, have a larger (tri?)dichotomy than Epstein’s public, personal, and introspective personalities. In a truly comprehensive and even more enjoyable read at ESPN, Thompson explores Epstein’s distant past as a child, his recent life in the offices of the Red Sox, and his present duties as a human and the Cubs President of Baseball Operations.

There’s far too much for me to summarize, and I wouldn’t really want to anyway, since it’s such an excellent read. But I can tell you that we know nothing of the man in charge of our beloved Cubs. Then again, how could we? He’s still figuring out himself – in ways we couldn’t even imagine.

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